Idioms film was established in Ramallah in 2004 with the purpose of developing the cinematic capacity of independent film production, by improving accessibility to production facilities, international film markets, and financing.

Beside our interest in Film production, we offer Audio-Visual content production for local and international bodies including with services such as Line production, video documentation, editing, printout, translation and subtitling, audio recording and sound design, video graphics and photography.

Our recent titles include “Suspended Time”, a program of 9 short films marking the 20 years of the signing the Oslo Agreement; “Infiltrators” by Khaled Jarrar; “Pink Bullet” by Ramzi Hazboun, and “No Exit” by Mohanad Yaqubi.

Some of our previous productions include shorts and feature films, including “The Shooter” by Ihab Jadallah (2007), “EXIT” by Mohanad Yaqubi (2009), “Chicken Heads” by Bassam Jarbawi (2009), “Though I Know the River is Dry” by Omar Hamilton (2012); and the feature film “Habibi Rasak Kharban” by Susan Youcif (2010). Many of the stated and the unstated works have been screened in festivals and events worldwide.

3 young people met in Amman early 1968, they decided to establish a film unit, as part of the growing support to Palestinian Revolution, the unit was named “Palestine Film Unit”.

The film tells the story of the unit established by Sulafa Jadallah, Hani Johariweh and Mustafa Abu Ali, following their life and activities in a the turbulent period of the Revolution in Amman between 1967 and 1971.

Although the group only did one film together which is lost today, their life within the revolution in Amman and their attempts and struggles to present cinema as a tool of social change is significant, and represents an example of an artistic commitment toward the cause and society they are fighting for, a theme that we all are looking for today…

Ali wakes up jumbled by the construction noise coming from outside, and the disturbing dream he just had. Little did he know that his day would be shuddery as the way it started, yet with little twists.

Director’s Statement Pink Bullet is an interpretation of how I see young people dealing with a bit life matters in a fictional way. Yet, I realize the countless complications in story as a display for the actual situation in my city, Ramallah.

A collection of short films by nine Palestinian filmmakers, SUSPENDED TIME was conceived as a way to understand the status quo of image production 20 years after the signing of the Oslo Accords in Washington, D.C. in 1993. Oslo’s most obvious impact is that its ‘vision’ was designed to accommodate Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. Others living in refugee camps in the surrounding Arab countries, in the Diaspora and Palestinians living in the 1948 territories were excluded, and their rights disregarded. SUSPENDED TIME mirrors this state of fragmentation through the lenses of the filmmakers, who reflect on the Oslo Accords.

Though I Know the River is Dry

He has returned to Palestine. Caught between his brother’s past and his child’s future, one man’s choice triggers catastrophe for his family.

Director’s Statement

Palestine, as a subject, can feel inaccessible and overburdened with history. Too often genuine drama and style is lost in ideology and political correctness. But film-makers have a responsibility, art has an obligation to tell people’s stories, to tell the stories that are being buried. With this short I think we are telling a relevant and resonant story, and telling it in a way that is both challenging and dramatic. Having worked in Palestine for the last five years, living there for a month or two each year, I have been constantly thinking about how cinema – our most immersive artform – can hope to recreate even a fraction of the Palestinian experience. It is an experience that is at once deeply complex and remarkably simple. It is both cinematically physical and invisibly psychological. It is living forever in an uncertain present while both the narratives of the past and the possibilities of the future are under attack. It is an experience that needs to be told and retold thousands of different ways – this is just one of them.

Synopsis The film unravels adventures of various attempts by individuals and groups during their search for gaps in the Wall in order to permeate and sneak past it. Lookouts, fear, angst, running, permeation, jumping off, crawling, passing through dark passages, are stages of a complex process of passing through to the “other side” and require a very specific state of mind. Some attempts end in failure, and others in success. Some are caught by the Israeli soldiers and others reach their destination. It’s a cat and mouse game, in which failure leads to more persistence and success is an antithesis to cat’s theories of security.

Born in Jenin, Khaled Jarrar completed his studies in interior design at the Palestine Polytechnic University in 1996. He then started working in photography and is known for his exhibition in 2004 at the Howarra and Qalandya checkpoints where he put up his photos in a manner to be seen by the Israeli soldiers. He also started making films and videos; his first short video “Journey 110″ had a big success and was selected at several international festivals and art galleries (Basel Art 41, Instant Video, London Film Festival). In 2011 he graduated from the International Academy of Art (Palestine). As a visual artists, Jarrar works with photography, video and performance. He lately became famous for his project “Live and work in Palestine” which consisted in creating the first unofficial Palestinian stamp that he uses to stamp official passports of people from all nationalities around the world.

Winner Best Film Winner FIPRESCI Winner Best Actress Winner Best Editor at Dubai International Film Festival 2011 Muhr Arab Feature

Winner Camera NOVO at Cinema NOVO Festival 2012

Winner NETPAC for Asian Cinema at Bangalore International Film Festival 2012

Winner Grand Prize in Emerging Narrative at IFP Independent Film Week

Official Selection Of

Venice Film Festival Toronto International Film Festival Busan International Film Festival Dubai International Film Festival Palm Springs International Film Festival Göteborg International Film Festival Miami International Film Festival Human Rights Watch Travelling Film Festival Movies That Matter Travelling Film Festival

Providence College with Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Kenyon College as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Arab Film Festival, Texas. Night Gala film at Birds Eye View in London. BFI Southbank. Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University in Durham, NC as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as part of the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival. Austin Film Society.

Habibi screens at the University of California, Merced as part of the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival. Arab American National Museum in Michigan.

2012

Chennai International Film Festival. Bangalore International Film Festival. Bahamas International Film Festival. Joel D. Valdez Main Library in Tucson as part of the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival.

reRun Theater in Brooklyn. Ljubljana International Film Festival. Jaffa at Al Saraya Theater. University of Redlands. Sheffield Cinema Palestino Film Festival. Brussels Mediterranean Film Festival. Latin Arab Film Festival.

Two students in the West Bank are forced to return home to Gaza, where their love defies tradition. To reach his lover, Qays grafittis poetry across town. ‘Habibi’ is a modern re-telling of the famous ancient Sufi parable ‘Majnun Layla.’ The full Arabic title is ‘Habibi Rasak Kharban,’ which translates as “Darling, something’s wrong with your head.”

Habibi won Best Film, FIPRESCI Prize, Best Actress, and Best Editor at the Dubai International Film Festival in the Arab Muhr Competition. Additionally, it received the Camera Novo, the highest prize at the Cinema Novo Festival, Brugge. Habibi is also the recipient of the Grand Prize in the Emerging Narrative program at IFP’s Independent Film Week and is supported by Co-Producer Dubai Entertainment and Media Organization, Zain, Cinereach, Austin Film Society, Princess Grace Foundation – USA, Fonds BKVB, Rooftop Films, Institute of International Education, Jerome Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Funding Exchange, A.M. Qattan Foundation, Idioms Film, Panasonic, fiscal sponsor Women Make Movies, Richard Linklater, and many other generous donors.

Circolo del Cinema “Immagini” – Sant’Antioco – Italy –Al Kasabah Arab american film festival – Detroit32nd Montpellier International Festival of Mediterranean Film (Cinemed) Bahamas International Film Festival V international film festival, Russia Interfilm Berlin-KukiFlickerFest, AustraliaColumbia University Film Festival – Best Film Award Kim’s Video Best Film (“Dangerously Unique” – Student Choice Award: Best Film

– National Board of Review Grant

Synopsis

Eleven-year-old shepherd boy, Yousef, would rather play with his pet gazelle MishMish than help his ailing father. Desperate for money, Yousef’s father decides to sell his prized sheep to customers from the city, but the sheep is no where to be found. While wrestling with Yousef, MishMish charges the sheep, killing it. In order to keep MishMish safe, Yousef eliminates the evidence and implicates his brother’s dog, Max. Just when Yousef thinks he’s covered his tracks, his father decides to kill Max. Will Yousef confess, or will he let Max take the fall? Roos Djaj is the coming of age story that explores the fine line between taking responsibility for ones actions and lying in order to protect oneself.

Palestine is occupied by the international media and is the stage for sensational news stories. Palestinians are presented as “performers” in these dramatic international evening newscasts and Palestinian filmmakers find themselves compelled to comply with their violent “meta-script” and its good-guy and bad-guy-narratives.

Director’s Statement

Ihab Jadallah both parodies and rejects this constraint. THE SHOOTER rebells against the image of Palestine as propagated by the international media and subverts this staged representation of his country and its people. In his film the “performer” becomes active: he departs from the official script and gradually breaks out of character.